To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

H. Chapter 19: The Negro Church in Louisiana

Page 1

[CHAPTER 19]
[Page 1]
THE NEGRO CHURCH IN LOUISIANA
The Black Code of 1724 required that all slaves should be baptized into the Catholic faith. It also decreed the expulsion of all Jews from the Louisiana Territory; made it imperative that masters should provide religious instructions for their slaves; the Catholic religion was decreed the official religion; and all other modes of worship were forbidden. Moreover, slaves placed under the direction of any person other than a Catholic were liable to confiscation. Sundays, holidays, and feast days were to be observed strictly and any slaves found working on such days were also liable to confiscation. The law further required that all slaves should be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church when they died, and that they should be interred in consecrated ground set aside for that purpose.1
The following is an example of the interest shown by the Catholic clergy in behalf of the slave. Reverend P. Mathias, Curé of New Orleans and Vicar-General of the Bishop of Quebec, filed a suit in 1738 against Monsieur de Lapommeray, Treasurer-General of New Orleans, for having permitted the body of a slave girl to be interred “out of the cemetery, contrary to the ordinance of the King in the Black Code,” and without “the ceremonies of the Church.” Father Mathias demanded that the body of the 12-year-old girl be exhumed and reinterred in the prescribed cemetery with the necessary Catholic rites. He was sustained by the court and it was ordered that the body be exhumed and “transported to the cemetery of this city.”2

The unpublished manuscript "The Negro in Louisiana" is a work begun by the Dillard (University) Project in 1942, an arm of the WPA's Federal Writer's Project. After the dissolution of the unit, Marcus Christian maintained and edited the document in hopes of eventual publication. It is reproduced here as an annotated transcript, with original typos, chapters, and paginations preserved.

[CHAPTER 19]
[Page 1]
THE NEGRO CHURCH IN LOUISIANA
The Black Code of 1724 required that all slaves should be baptized into the Catholic faith. It also decreed the expulsion of all Jews from the Louisiana Territory; made it imperative that masters should provide religious instructions for their slaves; the Catholic religion was decreed the official religion; and all other modes of worship were forbidden. Moreover, slaves placed under the direction of any person other than a Catholic were liable to confiscation. Sundays, holidays, and feast days were to be observed strictly and any slaves found working on such days were also liable to confiscation. The law further required that all slaves should be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church when they died, and that they should be interred in consecrated ground set aside for that purpose.1
The following is an example of the interest shown by the Catholic clergy in behalf of the slave. Reverend P. Mathias, Curé of New Orleans and Vicar-General of the Bishop of Quebec, filed a suit in 1738 against Monsieur de Lapommeray, Treasurer-General of New Orleans, for having permitted the body of a slave girl to be interred “out of the cemetery, contrary to the ordinance of the King in the Black Code,” and without “the ceremonies of the Church.” Father Mathias demanded that the body of the 12-year-old girl be exhumed and reinterred in the prescribed cemetery with the necessary Catholic rites. He was sustained by the court and it was ordered that the body be exhumed and “transported to the cemetery of this city.”2